The Foreign Service Journal, January 2006

those concerned that Washington’s eager embrace and empowerment of rogue militaries in the so-called “war on terror” — as we did during the Cold War — will again strengthen regimes characterized by their cor- ruption and hostility to democracy and human rights. Edmund McWilliams entered the Foreign Service in 1975, serving in Vientiane, Bangkok, Moscow, Kabul, Islamabad, Managua, Bishkek, Dush- anbe, Jakarta (where he was political counselor from 1996 to 1999) and Washington, D.C. He opened the posts in Bishkek and Dushanbe and was the first chief of mission in each. In 1998, he received AFSA’s Christian Herter Award for creative dissent by a senior FSO. Since retiring as a Senior Foreign Service officer in 2001, he has worked with various U.S. and foreign human rights NGOs as a volunteer. Made in the USA Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth- Century Europe Victoria de Grazia, Belknap Press, 2005, $29.95, hardcover, 586 pages. R EVIEWED BY C HRISTOPHER T EAL Aspirations to cultural hegemony have been one of the constant accusa- tions leveled against the United States during its rise to superpower status over the past century, as the perva- siveness of American popular culture has fueled changing trends in art, music and fashion around the world. In addition, the U.S. corporations behind those products made inroads into the farthest reaches of the globe, and brought with them the mass-mar- keting, mass-consumption mind-set of 20th-century America. This expor- tation of “Babbittry,” Victoria de Grazia argues in her latest book — Irresistible Empire: America’s Ad- vance through Twentieth-Century Europe — had just as big an impact around the world as the military or diplomatic prowess of the world’s only remaining superpower. No one can underestimate the influence that American mass media (and American corporate power) have around the world. As early as the 1920s, European critics were disparaging the “Holly- wood Invasion,” but people came out in droves to see American films in their theaters. Scores of other American products (from detergent and razors to supermarkets and restaurants) soon followed in this path. As de Grazia points out, these U.S. models, with their associated marketing and name-branding, creat- ed strong impressions in countries throughout the old Continent that were catching up economically to the American standard. Exportation of the American consumer culture empowered individuals in Europe, offering choice (democracy), compe- tition (liberalism) and independence (liberty). These standard-bearers of the “American Way” acted as a revo- lutionary force overseas, altering the lives of European consumers and directly refuting the Soviet model of communism. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to mark the triumph of this irresistible force. Ironically, just as many in Europe had flocked toward this new way of consumption, U.S. materialism also sowed seeds of dis- content in other parts of the world, which were then fortified by the mar- keting machinery. The fear of a loss of identity and tradition created violent rejection of U.S. power and inten- tions, just as it had in parts of Europe during the first half of the century. Alienation and globalization became synonymous with the excesses of Americans’ unbridled greed. Similar disconnects help account for the fail- ure of our public diplomacy following the 9/11 attacks: Our campaign to combat “Islamic extremism” was dis- missed as little more than a hollow, self-serving product in slick packag- ing. Though intellectually ambitious, Irresistible Empire at times falls well short of the mark in execution. Some of de Grazia’s chapters are simply long, turgid histories of various capi- talist ventures, or overextended analy- ses of the activities of groups such as the Rotary Club in Europe. The core of her argument — that innovations (both in terms of products and their marketing) created greater change than the might of the 1st Infantry — seems stretched to the point of break- ing. De Grazia is a historian at Columbia University, and her book seems better suited for one of her graduate-level classes than to mass audiences. She does, however, offer a useful (if counterintuitive) per- spective about the nature of the cur- rent U.S. ascendancy, one that ties in the importance of trade and com- merce and the unique American perspective celebrating these pur- suits. While that perspective is only part of the picture, it’s a part that has been too often caricatured or obscured until now. n Christopher Teal, an FSO since 1999, is currently a desk officer in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and a member of the Journal ’s Editorial Board. The opinions expressed here are his own. J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 77 B O O K S u